5/24/2006

Competitive Enterprise Institute Dinner

I enjoyed going to the Competitive Enterprise Institute dinner tonight. P. J. O'Rourke's talk was very entertaining. Here are a couple of interesting statements that he made:

P.J. noted how his seven year old daughter complained that life wasn't fair. P.J. turned to her and said: you are cute, that isn't fair. Your family is well to do, that isn't fair. You are born in the United States, that isn't fair. You better pray that life doesn't become fair.

*While P.J.'s comments are funnier than what I would say and his daugther might remember them longer, I suppose that I would explain that fairness is that her family and country get to keep what is theirs, that they took the time and effort to produce. Ensuring equality of outcomes is not the same thing as ensuring equality of opportunity.

P.J. also said: Someone mentions corporate corruption and you think of Enron. I think of Elliot Spitzer.

2 Comments:

Hi john, got to comment. The guy summed it up beautifully, I'll remember that quote.

I got a good look at "fair" the other day, that was barren cane fields in the nation that used to be Africa's biggest sugar producer.

The cubans spread salt on them and now one of the "big" people in the country has the monopoly of sugar imports - from cuba, of course.

Driving through the unsurfaced roads in the capital last night, the people looked happy, the capital has over 250 a day catching cholera, virtually no piped water or sanitation. But the big guys have stakes in bottling & canning plants.